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SPAN 300 - Lecture 3 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters I-X (cont.) | Open Yale Courses

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González Echevarría continues from the end of his last lecture by referring to the self invention and self legitimation of Don Quixote, which is the most innovative aspect of the book. The main character is, as it is suggested in the famous first sentence of the book, beyond family and social determinisms, hence literature appears as a realm for wit and a capacity for invention, breaking with the previous literary tradition and with its predecessors. Perspectivism is expressed in the novel through various linguistic fluctuations, regional differences, and spaces such as the inn, which becomes a key place in the novel by providing an archaeology of society. The first episodes of the Quixote, from the first sally to the first adventure with Sancho, show the gap between literature and reality by probing into Don Quixote's very particular madness which refuses to recognize and accept social conventions. Cervantes' literary techniques, such as dialogue, and the presence of his squire blur t

Cervantes' Don Quixote SPAN 300 - Lecture 3 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters I-X (cont.) Chapter 1. Innovative Features in Don Quixote [00:00:00] Professor Roberto González Echevarría: Let me begin by repeating my last point in last Tuesday's lecture. The birth of Don Quixote is an act of self invention by a man of fifty, and remember that fifty is a very advanced age in 1605. He feels free to create himself beyond family birth and need. In this, the novel is directly opposed to most previous literature, particularly the romances of chivalry where they were miraculous births. And the…

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